3 reasons to celebrate.

1. It is Brooke’s 7 MONTH BIRTHDAY!!!! I really feel like the last 7 months have gone by faster than I could ever imagine.

She loves flying around the room like superman. I love that even after we take out the rubber bands her hair still looks like it is in pigtails.

To celebrate her 7 month birthday I will give her a kiss for every day that she has been alive, go on a walk with her because that is her favorite and make 7/12ths of a birthday cake to eat.

I think I want to make a cake that looks like this (from our day in Solvang):

2. Billy got accepted to an awesome internship for the summer. Added bonus: it is here so we don’t have to move which would have made me very sad because I kind of love it here.

3. I was at the gym at 6 a.m. this morning. (Not nearly as cool as the other two reasons to celebrate but I am celebrating the fact that I got up early to workout because that never happens unless I am teaching a class).

Yep.

A few people asked what workouts I do on the stair climber. I haven’t made up anything cool because simply pushing start on the thing gives me a killer workout but I usually do the Fat Burner setting because I like the intervals that it has on it….. except for that last portion of death that makes you speed up for way too long.

It was a weird feeling to be showered and ready for the day 2 hours earlier than I normally start my workouts.

Something tragic did occur while I was at the gym. I was so excited to watch Parenthood on my phone while on the stair climber but when I pushed play it started playing the first season….. I realized that I have gone through all three seasons already and I have zero new episodes to watch and have to wait until the next season is on Netflix. My heart is broken.

Billy told me that he will make me green pancakes on Sunday for St. Patrick’s Day so I had to have some today for lunch too… I have no reason for this but they were delicious.

A reader emailed me asking what Running Apps are the BEST…. I need your help. What running apps do you use and love?

I like the Nike Plus app because you can keep up with your friends, and it gives you positive encouragement after your runs!! And online it tracks the elevations, shows you where you speed up and slow down, and even recommends places to run.

I was curious if you ever cornidesed changing the structure of your website? Its very well written; I love what youve got to say. But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having one or two images. Maybe you could space it out better?

Cute little Brooke! and yay for Billy’s internship and NOT having to move!!

I love using the Map My Run app. I don’t have a GPS watch, so it keeps track of where I am, as well as updates me on my pace and total time at each mile mark. I like that I can go back and find routes for different mileages now that I’ve already run.

I LOVE Strava! You can make “segments” and it will keep track of every person that runs that segment. It also keeps track of your own personal records on mile, 1k, 5k etc. Plus, you can just upload your Garmin data to it. You don’t need a smartphone to use it. Pretty sweet if you ask me.

P.S. It’s free.
PPS. Hooray for Brooke! She deserves a trip to Yogurtland. And since she isn’t old enough for FroYo, her mom will just have to eat hers ;)

I like iRun, RunKeeper, and RunCalc. All three are unique for different things you use them for. I use iRun to log in my miles, RunKeeper’s GPS to track my workout (it sucks up the battery though), and RunCalc to calculate paces, etc.

For a healthy diet, you should eat lots of color. Would that cake count? :-)

Congrats on not having to move. That would kind of suck since you are moving so soon into a bigger place anyway.
I use Endomondo for the past year. I am getting pretty close to giving up on the phone GPS and getting a more accurate Garmin, however. I just know the technology is much, much better for Garmins than phones.

I love Nike Plus. I ran with it everyday before I got my Garmin and still use it occasionally. I also just discovered Charity Miles. For every mile you run, money is donated to various charities. How awesome is that?!?!

Carolyn

Brooke is so cute! Happy 7 months baby girl. I too love Parenthood and just finished Season 3 on Netflix, good news is that you can download the NBC app to your IPhone and watch all the current season on there. I am already 3 episodes into Season 4, that show just keeps getting better!

Awwwr Happy 7 Months to Brooke, and congratulations to Billy! Those are definitely some great reasons to celebrate, so I say toss aside the idea of 7/12ths of a cake and go for the whole one instead ;)

Congrats to Billy on the internship! I’m glad he found one close to home! :-) And happy 7 months to Brooke baby!

Whenever I’m on the stair-masteringofkillingmythighs I always make up my own intervals to the pace of the song and the chorus. I’m the annoying person constantly clicking buttons but I love the quick short bursts of fast painful thigh burning. lol

I was going to make the cake you showed, it is all over pinterest. Then I realized that I have 2 kids, one who screamed 24/7 at the time, and I was working full time then, and we were traveling an hour with the cake…. So I opted for easy when I saw those multicolored fake m&ms at the grocery store. They were even lined up in the order I wanted!! Add pudding to any cake mix and it makes it taste awesome. The first cake I made her took me 6 hrs, it was a garbage truck because she loved them. Each year it gets easier and easier. For my youngest’s 2nd birthday I baked cupcakes, iced them and slapped elmo parelles on them and called it a day!

Monica L

Ashley

Happy 7 months Brooke! Cutest little thing around!! Also congrats to Billy! So exciting!
As for apps, I love Runkeeper. It gives you the option of using the gps when you are outside running or to add runs manually. I have been training for my first half marathon and they actually have different training schedules that you can follow depending on what distance of race you aee running, how fast you want to run them, etc. It’s the best free running app I have ever used. It sends you emails and notifications when you make achievements, so it’s super encouraging :)

Sara

Happy 7 months to Brooke! Today is my 24th birthday so that’s my reason to celebrate :) today consisted of a 5 mile shakeout run after 16 miles yesterday, a Starbucks trip, lounging by the pool here in FL for spring break, and now dinner at a Thai restaurant, one of my favorites!

I have a love/hate relationship with the stair climber aka machine of misery. And the fat burning program is HARD. I usually do the calorie burner because I hate that last section so much. I will have to check out Parenthood. I just finished the first season of Homeland and it was awesome!

Josie

Hey!
I got addicted to Parenthood too and went through the first 3 seasons on Netflix way too fast. I started going through withdrawal UNTIL I realized you can watch all of the newest season’s episodes on nbc.com (they have an app that you can download too).
Happy viewing!

CZ

I love RunKeeper because it does interval training for me. I used to use MapMyRun, but I’m an interval girl. Not sure if the paid version is any better than the free one, but I’ve been very happy using the free one for about a year now.

Brooke is so cute :) I LOVE Cali! I’m so happy you get to stay. If I could, I’d move there.

the “whisk kid” has that rainbow cake recipe on her blog. Her recipe was featured on martha stewart! I have tackled it once and I will warn you, it’s tedious!!!!!! but very worth it when you cut into it :)

I use Sports Tracker and I love it! I think its pretty accurate and I love how it tells me every mile what my pace is, then I record the run in my diary (part of the app) and describe how I felt during the run, it’s great!

P.S. I just discovered your blog a week ago and already love it, I am training for a Ragnar and love reading this to help motivate me!

I love MapMyRun! I can program in my regular routes using google maps (you can also use the GPS on your phone so you don’t have to do it manually) and all I have to do is submit my time. It will add it all to my calendar, letting me know how many miles I’ve done for the week/month. Also, it shows the percentage of change in your distance per week.

Jill

I currently Map My Run. I find its gps to be very accurate. It’s the only app I’ve ever used so I don’t really have anything to compare it to. It would be nice if it beeped every mile at me like my garmin forerunner 10 does though. Ill have to check out some of the apps others have recommended here.

Yay for seven months!!
I don’t know if anyone has mentioned this already, so sorry if its redundant, but do you know that you can download the NBC app and watch all of Season 4 now? Free! They post the show the morning after it has aired, so if you miss it the night before, you can watch it on the TM! I’m working my way through The Biggest Loser right now. Nothing like watching them go through heck for a little extra motivation to keep going!
Hope tht helps!!

I too adore the show Parenthood. We started watching it on Netflix about a year ago and now we’re caught up and watching it on TV. It really stinks waiting a week for the next show (and of course now that it’s in between seasons).

I love Mapmyrun, and I’ve used it for a majority of my runs this year. My friend recently recommended Strava, and so far I like it. They both pretty much function the same, showing you stats, pace, and will talk to you at different milestones in your run(1/2 mile or mile), it will tell you your pace as well as what mile you are at. I have to say, and I know this sounds kind of dumb, but I like the voice in Mapmyrun better than in Strava. The voice in Mapmyrun, sounds so much more encouraging to me for some reason.

Kay

What an awesome Friday!! Hopefully Billy will love the internship. My husband did several while in law school and he really enjoyed them. I use Runtastic Pro on my runs. I love it and I got it when it was a free app. Do you know about App Gratis? Get it!!

I bought those reddish (rust?) colored pants from Target tonight! I remember seeing them on your blog before and asking you where you got them, but I was surprised to still see them in the store! I love the way they fit — so comfy!

Oh stop! Her hair stays in pigtails!? I can’t handle that. She’s gonna be hard to discipline when she’s bad with that sweetness!

Also, I use the NIKE Running App and love it. Every mile or so it has a famous athlete say inspirational words to you! If you’re listening to music through your iPhone at least…great for people who need an extra push.

First, your post was a really welcome pick me up today. Life is stressful and was getting me down and a post about celebrating was exactly what I needed!
Second, cutest. baby. ever. (I know you must get this all the time, but she is just so happy in every picture!)
Third, that cake looks incredible. I’m pretty sure if I tried to make that it would be a pretty epic failure.
Finally, I don’t have any additional running apps (the ones I’ve used have all been mentioned), but I am VERY interested in one of your other commenters requests about how to avoid ruining phones with sweat. Such a problem.

Lauren

I use Mapmyrun and just had my first run this past week with my new Garmin Forerunner 10. It is an amazing GPS watch at a great price! I didn’t think it would display my course but it does! I would highly recommend it!

That girl has some of the best baby hair I’ve ever seen! Happy 7th month, Brooke! It’s been a blast seeing you grow up and what not. Congrats to Billy, and I’ve got to throw my hat in to the ring for RunKeeper – I’m a new user, and you should probably make that new convert ;)

Rebecca

Good news season 4 of Parenthood just came out on HULU. The regular HULU, not the Hulu plus that you have to pay for! I may have just watched the whole season 4 this week. I am also a recent Parenthood convert and season 4 did not disappoint!

That’s awesome for Billy, congrats! Is he doing a firm? If so, he’s probably going to get 1st yr salary basically, which means you guys will be able to do all kinds of fun stuff on the weekends and if you’re doing loans, probably less in loans for 2L year (plus he’ll probably get an offer for the following summer, which is the most important one!!). Woo-hoo! And so glad you guys won’t have to move!